Titles and Affiliations
Distinguished Professor and Chair, Department of Psychology
Distinguished Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences
Member, UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center
Senior Research Scientist, Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology
Research area
Developing evidence-based approaches to promote the psychological, social, and physical health of women living with breast cancer.
Impact
While no two women will experience the diagnosis and treatment for their breast cancer in exactly the same way, there are certain emotional and physical challenges that many share, such as adhering to endocrine therapy and managing depression and anxiety. In addition, Black women who have breast cancer face specific challenges that have a negative effect on their quality of life. Dr. Stanton has established a strong community-academic partnership and together they accrued more than 150 Black women diagnosed with breast cancer into the SOAR (Speaking Our African American Realities) trial. This study is evaluating the relevance and consequences of the Strong Black Woman schema —specifically the need to be strong, suppress emotions, decline support, and care for others— to the health and well-being of these patients. They are developing and testing interventions that address the unique issues that Black women with breast cancer experience and to improve both breast cancer outcomes and the quality of life for patients.
Progress Thus Far
With her community collaborators, she has formed culturally curated focus groups called Gatherings, to determine what resources and/or interventions are needed to enhance the health and well-being of Black patients. The Gatherings revealed that the Strong Black Woman schema leads to Black women neglecting self- care during the cancer experience. They also observed that nearly all of the women cited spirituality as a key resource during their experience. From their analysis, Dr. Stanton’s team established an approach for scaling qualitative findings and, building on findings from Gathering participants, and developed resources for Black women living with a diagnosis of breast cancer including a four-session psychosocial intervention. The intervention focuses on challenging the deleterious facets of the Strong Black Woman schema as well as promoting care for the self. They have developed a protocol for advancing their findings into a clinical trial, Project SOAR Awakenings. In addition, Dr. Stanton established a collaboration with fellow BCRF investigator, Dr. Christine Ambrosone, who is incorporating the Strong Black Woman schema scale into her research.
What’s next
In the coming year, Dr. Stanton will continue data analyses from the Project SOAR quantitative research. Specifically, assessing the associations of the Strong Black Woman schema subscales with depressive symptoms, and plans to launch the Project SOAR Awakenings clinical trial She will also conduct data analyses on the results obtained from collaboration with Dr. Ambrosone. . Together, Dr. Stanton’s research will support Black women with breast cancer and potentially improve their well-being and health.
Biography
Annette L. Stanton, PhD, is Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry/Biobehavioral Sciences at the University of California, Los Angeles, senior research scientist at the UCLA Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology, and a member of the Center for Cancer Prevention and Control Research in the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center. Her research centers on specifying factors that promote psychological and physical health in individuals who confront health-related adversity, including cancer, infertility, and other medical conditions. She is particularly interested in the conditions under which specific coping processes promote or hinder health and well-being.
In the area of psychosocial oncology, Dr. Stanton conducts longitudinal research to understand the influences of personality and contextual resources, cognitive appraisals, and coping processes on the quality of life and health in individuals diagnosed with or at risk for a range of cancers, including cancer of the breast, eye, lung, and prostate. She then works to translate her findings into effective interventions for individuals living with cancer through conducting randomized, controlled trials of psychosocial interventions.
In 2003, Dr. Stanton received the Senior Investigator Award from Division 38 (Health Psychology) of the American Psychological Association, and in 2012-13 she served as President of Division 38. In 2013, she received the Society of Behavioral Medicine Cancer Special Interest Group Award for Outstanding Achievement in Behavioral Medicine and Psycho-Oncologic Research. She has received awards for undergraduate teaching and graduate mentoring. In 2006, Professor Stanton was honored with the J. Arthur Woodward Graduate Mentoring Award and the Distinguished Teaching Award in the UCLA Department of Psychology.
If not for BCRF, my team would not have been able to honor the voices of Black American women with breast cancer in order to represent their unique experiences and promote culturally curated care.
